1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic mail communication apparatus and an electronic mail transmission method that automatically append a signature to outgoing electronic mail.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, electronic mail (hereafter also e-mail) has been coming into wider and wider use. When e-mail is transmitted, it is customary to append thereto a xe2x80x9csignaturexe2x80x9d including personal information such as the sender""s corporate post and contact address. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly common to use more than one signature to use different signatures, for example, between overseas and domestic e-mail.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. H4-212550 discloses a technique of appending to a text of e-mail a signature selected from among a plurality of signatures previously stored in a memory or the signature recorded in e-mail transmission history as having been used for the same addressee in the past.
However, for the addressee to be able to know from where and in what situation the sender sent the e-mail, it is essential to use a signature that includes information as to the location from which the sender sent the e-mail.
Previously creating and storing a plurality of signatures including information as to different locations is helpful in cases where the sender is likely to send e-mail from one of a comparatively limited number of locations. However, with a mobile communication apparatus that allows transmission/reception of e-mail anywhere by the use of a portable communications terminal or public telephone, it is impossible to specifically identify the location from which e-mail is transmitted, and therefore it is difficult to previously create and store a signature for such a location.
It is of course possible to note within a text of e-mail the location and the situation from and in which the sender sends e-mail. This, however, needs to be done every time e-mail is transmitted, and thus is very troublesome.
An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail communication apparatus and an electronic mail transmission method that allow information as to from where a sender sent e-mail and whether the sender is currently moving or not to be automatically added to a signature so that such information is made readily known to an addressee.
To achieve the above object, according to one aspect of the present invention, an electronic mail communication apparatus is provided with:
a signature memory for storing for later output a signature including personal information as to a sender;
a current location finder for finding the current location of the sender;
a current location adder for adding the current location found by the current location finder to the signature stored in the signature memory; and
a transmitter for transmitting a text of electronic mail after appending thereto the signature including the current location added thereto by the current location adder.
In this electronic mail communication apparatus, the current location finder recognizes the current location of the sender of electronic mail. The current location adder adds the recognized current location to the signature of the sender stored in the signature memory. The transmitter transmits this signature, having the current location appended thereto, together with a text of electronic mail.
The electronic mail communication apparatus may be further provided with a movement detector. In that case, when the movement detector recognizes that the electronic mail communication apparatus is moving, information indicating that the sender is moving is added to the signature.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for transmitting electronic mail is provided with:
a signature memory for storing for later output a signature including personal information as to a sender;
a current location finder for finding the current location of the sender;
a current location adder for adding the current location found by the current location finder to the signature stored in the signature memory; and
a transmitter for transmitting a text of electronic mail after appending thereto the signature including the current location added thereto by the current location adder.